Annoying, Rebellious, and Interesting
by x-menobsessed26
Summary: A short epilogue from X-men: Evolution told from Jean's perspective. One-shot!


Each of us X-men had grown from the annoying, sometimes rebellious, always interesting mutant teenagers we had been into still annoying, sometimes rebellious, always interesting mutant adults. Most of us had degrees of some sort under our belts along with our dreams we hadn't grown out of yet.

It is interesting now to look back, being twenty-nine years old. Everything in my life has changed, some for the good, but some for the bad.

My parents and my sister's family, including herself, don't talk to me anymore. This wasn't their doing, as it was a request from me. My mother had protested in earnest.

"Now, Jean, there's no need to shut your family out just because a few people dislike...your kind."

The hesitation in her words is what confirmed my argument. It was not safe for my family to include me on their tree just yet. After what happened to Kitty's family, I didn't want the same fate to befall mine. When the Pryde's had been discovered as having produced and kept in contact with a mutant daughter, they were constantly harassed by others, even outright attacked at times.

Mr. Pryde snapped. He had loved his daughter, but after what the people were saying to him and treating his wife and himself, he decided to end it. In a murder-suicide, Kitty lost her family.

It was a hard day for everyone of Xavier's. We all supported Kitty as she began to deal with the grief of what she had lost, even gaining a Russian boyfriend along the way. More than anything else, it had served as a reminder of the risks we were up against. In response to that event, I called up my daddy at his office at Bard College late one night and asked him to talk to my mother about disconnecting for a while.

He agreed, however reluctantly, that it was probably for the best, and said he would not only talk to my mother, but would also talk to my sister, Sara. With her husband of four years and twins of barely a year old, it was not worth putting them at risk, especially with the headquarters for the FoH (Friends of Humanity) being just a few towns over.

It hadn't saved them, however. My sister's house was set ablaze with the infant twins still wailing inside their cribs. The FoH had taken my sister and brother-in-law out to the front yard. According to their neighbors, they had beaten Paul to death right there in the yard, my sister screaming and struggling the entire time. It hadn't been a fast, easy, or painless death.

My sister was thrown into a black van with 'F.o.H.' written on the side in red and white paint. She was taken to an unknown location and dismembered. The only reason we know that much is we have found her head, her left hand, and a few toes.

The rest has never been recovered.

That was what tore me apart. I had been a senior in college when it happened, nearly ready to escape with my bachelors and continue on to my masters and PhD. I didn't stop. In fact, I got faster.

I became cold to everything and everyone, the complete opposite of Kitty who had welcomed affection and attention. I didn't want anyone's pity or help. I just wanted to deal with it, which was actually pretending I was fine and moving on. I wasn't. Further away from Kitty's ordeal, I hadn't gained a boyfriend then. I had lost one.

I lost Scott.

Not in the dead sense, since he is still alive and kicking, though blasting is more his style. He left me. I cannot say I blame him, seeing as I was ignoring him and pushing his farther away than ever, but I was still pissed that he didn't just break it off instead of cheat.

The reality is that he did cheat and I deserved it. Seeing past the anger and pain I felt when he left me, which I still get a pang of at times, I see a very happy Scott with an equally happy Lee Forrester, the rough and tough, but plenty nice normal woman he fell for. That's right. Scotty Boy fell for a normal human, despite the angry protests of some of the more, um, opposing sides at the Institute.

It's interesting that it should be Rogue and I, the two women who had loved him, who kicked everyone in the side of the head and told them to get a life, as obviously Scott had found one that worked for him.

Rogue is equally happy now, with an advancement in her powers with a final mutating process granting her the ability to touch. Two years before that, she had found someone who was willing to love her despite her inability for a physical relationship, which is interesting since Remy LeBeau likes to keep up the pretensions that he is quite the playboy.

Kurt has stayed with Amanda until, well, today. They were married two years after graduation and have the most adorable daughter in the world. Even Amanda's parents admit that little Talia is cute, though she looks nearly like a carbon copy of her father. She still has blue fur, though it is a few shades lighter, yellow eyes without pupils, pointed ears, tail (though Talia's is retractable), and 3 fingers and toes on each hand.

Her attitude is more like her mother', which could always change, but seems like it's a very good and permanent thing at the moment. No one wants to think about what kind of trouble she could be getting into if she had inherited her father's teleportation abilities, which she didn't, thank God.

Both Storm and Hank had gotten married, though to separate people obviously. Scott's dedication to Lee inspired Hank to consider the human playing field, and it's a good thing he did. Otherwise he may never have met the lovely Patricia "Trish" Tilby. She's a hell of a reporter and an even better friend, though she's a lot like Lee in that she's hard to approach. While Lee's is part of her personality, Trish's is more likely caused by the traumatic previous marriage she had been involved in. Luckily Hank is nothing like her ex.

Storm, on the other hand, had married a little bit more special of a human. His name is T'Challa who is the King of a small African country named Wakanda and is also a member of the Avengers under the alias 'Black Panther'. As such, Storm serves as a sort of liaison between the New York City Avengers and the X-men and is very happy to play the role, especially after she received the news that Evan was killed in a brawl between the FoH and the Morlocks. Her sister and brother-in-law took the news less well and after a screaming fest over blaming Ororo for the death of their child, they cut off every tie they had to her and moved to Oregon.

Logan has traveled back to Canada to find out more of who he was, visiting frequently though he never admits it's because he wants to be there. He also gained a daughter in that he took X-23 in, and when he found out his name was actually James Logan, not just Logan, she changed her name accordingly to Laura Logan. It's a lot more fitting than one letter and a couple of numbers. Laura eventually came to study here when she could control herself in social situations and Logan too, though he is frequently sent away on long missions.

Jubilee and Rahne had found their way back to the Institute after the battle of Apocalypse. Their welcome was loud and very sincere. Everyone had missed them, more so the other New Mutants each of whom has earned their own spot on the X-men. More and more new students took their places as New Mutants and various other teams.

That was, at least, until I screwed everything up, reluctantly I assure you. After my sister and her family died, I went further in medical school and graduated super early, with the help of many cups of coffee and sheer willpower to prove I was more than a mutie. I began residency and, well, lets just say my powers began to go crazy. The final part of myself came out and I became the Phoenix, but not before being Dark Phoenix and trying to kill everything and everyone.

As Dark Phoenix, I was nearly unstoppable and would have been if not for one annoying, sometimes rebellious, always interesting mutant man. He was willing to have my full power on him and gave me a run for my money, both being omega level mutants, but he distracted me enough for the others to help and me to come back to myself. I'll get back to that in a minute.

Onto the problem, I had attacked the Institute, with its many, many mutant children. Charles saw a problem and contacted an old associate of his, Emma Frost. She is barely more than four years older than myself, but like Warren Worthington III, she is business through and through. More importantly, she is a mutant, a telepath to be exact. With Xavier's help, they build a school in Boston and through the contacting of parents and many difficult decisions, the student body was split.

They're planning another for California.

The X-men had gained many other new X-men while losing some, like the Wagners, who just wanted to live their lives. Danielle Moonstar (Mirage), Forge, Alex Summers (Havok), and even Warren Worthington III (Angel) joined the X-men's ranks at one point or another. Eventually Alex split off in a bitter disagreement from his brother and formed his own mutant team, backed by the government and a human liaison named Valerie Cooper. The team was named X-Factor and from the X-men, Rahne and Jamie followed, along with a few new mutants the government themselves recruited, including Magneto's illegitimate daughter, Lorna.

Do you remember that guy I mentioned who saved my life?

That was Bobby Drake aka Iceman. He's two years my junior, extremely ridiculous, all too likeable, and the man I'm totally in love with.

That's right. All of those people I mentioned weren't the only ones to find love. I married Bobby Drake almost a month ago and we couldn't be happier. Well, I couldn't be, but he will be as soon as I tell him about the surprise growing in my tummy.

I'm sure the child will be all too much like his or her parents, driving us up the wall, but hopefully not climbing it like little Talia. I'm sure he or she will be annoying, sometimes rebellious, and always interesting, just like my friends, family, and life, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

**I know, it's a stupid plot that came to me while eating my birthday cake this morning, and I thought since it's my birthday, I'm going to post it no matter how stupid it is. Please review!**


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